New Year’s Resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions for the Last Time

With Clinical Hypnotherapy

By: Gwenn Henkel, CMH, MH

Certified Medical and Master Hypnotherapist

It’s hard to believe it, but it is that time of year once again, where we decide once and for all to loose that excess weight, start exercising daily, stop smoking, stop procrastinating, learn to really de-stress and just overall, take better care of ourselves, just to name a few. We are in a very positive mind- set that THIS time is REALLY the time it will work!

The time seems like the right time too because it is the New Year and the perfect time to start all over fresh! But what happens in about two weeks time or even less? The old patterns start to show their ugly faces again and we find ourselves right back where we have been over and over again in our lives, doing all the things we want to change about ourselves. You may even try to “start over” on a Monday sometime (that’s a good day isn’t it?) And then we find only that we still fall back into the old routine and eventually stay there until ……….“next year!”

I was once told that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Now here’s my question to you, why would you continue to keep doing the same things over and over again to make changes in your life, only end up with the same results? Why does this happen? Well first of all, that positive mind- set that you had in the beginning was coming from your will power, a place in your conscious mind.

Behavioral habits are controlled in the subconscious mind, that part of our mind, which lies just below the conscious mind, which makes will power the wrong tool to use for making permanent changes in our behaviors. Clinical hypnosis gives us access to the subconscious mind and allows us to make changes in a natural way, without struggling.

You may ask, “How can hypnosis be natural? I’ve seen it done on stage and TV. It seems that a person is being told what to do and they respond. That doesn’t seem natural to me.” This is a question I am often asked. It is natural because you are actually in a state of hypnosis from 50-80% of your day! How can that be? Well first of all, when you go to sleep at night, you go through the four phases of trance, Beta, Alpha, Theta, and Delta to go to sleep and you wake up the same way each morning.

Have you ever been driving on the freeway and missed your exit because you were “daydreaming?” You were in a light trance state of mind, able to operate and control your car, yet thinking of other things, and missed that exit. It’s just that simple. You are not a blank slate in hypnosis. You are very aware of what is going on. You are in control.

But why would someone respond to those silly requests of the hypnotist during a stage act? The person who decided to participate in the act was aware that he or she would be asked to do some amusing things, and made a contract in their mind that it was ok to do those things if they chose to do so. But when someone makes the decision to come see a hypnotherapist like myself, they have a much different contract in their mind. They know that they are coming to me to help them correct a problem and they are willing to let me do my work with them to bring positive results. If I were to ask that same person who was in the stage show the night before to bark like a dog or cluck like a chicken, they would not respond to that suggestion. It simply does not fit in the clinical setting.

Why keep trying all of the diets in the world to only gain that weight plus more once again after you are tired of that diet and resume your old eating behaviors? Why use all the stop smoking-aids available to stop smoking when it’s really the habit that you need to change, which of course is stored in your subconscious mind? Why continue to feel like a failure every time you try something new to change your habits when it is a part of your mind that just needs changing? It’s really so simple. It’s not a conscious effort at all. Just let your subconscious mind make the changes easily and effortlessly once and for all.

I offer free 30 minute consults if you would like to talk to me about something in your life that you would like to change. Let this be the last year that you make New Year’s Resolutions.

Change your life by changing you mind NOW with Clinical Hypnotherapy!

Gwenn Henkel CMH, MH

Certified Medical & Master Hypnotherapist

961 Laurel Street Ste 206

San Carlos, CA 94070

650 380-2494